Prepared For A Purpose by Antoinette Tuff

 

Read an excerpt here

870 children waited in fear as their elementary school rushed into lockdown mode. As the nation faced yet another Sandy Hook story of tragedy, one woman rewrote the ending.

Yet the story doesn't start with those first steps Michael Hill took into that Atlanta elementary school. It starts with Antoinette Tuff, a woman who faced her own pain, hurt, and rejection, yet held onto grace, faith, and hope. A hope that anchored her in the most high-stakes moments, a grace that allowed her to empathize with a hurting young man, and a faith that gave her the courage to love him back from the brink.

This is more than just the amazing account of tragedy averted. It's the evidence of what we can do when we allow ourselves to be used by God. And it's a story of how God uses all of our life experiences--the good and the bad--to prepare us for our own moment of divine purpose.

Prepared for a Purpose: The Inspiring Story of How One Woman Saved an Atlanta School under Siege by Antoinette Tuff was an inspiring, convicting, and heart-wrenching story of how God can use any circumstance, however bad, to mold His children and to save the lives of many others. This book alternates in the telling of two stories.  One is the story of Antoinette's tough life and how it led to her close relationship with God and the other is what happened when the gunman entered the Atlanta school where she worked. I found this book easy to read and gripping in its retelling of both her life and the situation she faced during the siege. I was convicted and moved to tears as I sympathized with the hard times that happened in Antoinette's life as well as marveled at how she continually relied on God and put her trust in Him even when it seemed like her life was ending. Her family relationships were hard, but I was blown away by how God used these struggles to help her connect with the disturbed and distressed young man that entered the Atlanta school where Antoinette was working. Overall, I found Prepared for a Purpose to be a wonderful read that I easily connected with and that challenged me to look beyond the hard times that I might face to see how God can use them to bless and to save others.

I received this book from Baker Publishing in exchange for an honest review.